What's your budget?

[Ben_S]

I've been keeping track of my hobby spending for a couple of years, after deciding that I needed to get it in control. Last year, I spent about £500, though my net spend (i.e. deducting hobby stuff sold) was actually negative, which was a first. This year, I've spent about £100, so need to rein it in a bit. It's not that I can't afford to spend more, but I don't have space for all my stuff as it is, so I want to limit acquisitions until I've assembled/painted/used (or sold) more of the mountain that I already have.

For the record, this includes things like glue and paint, and other non-hobby items bought for hobby use, but does not include membership or attendance fees for clubs and tournaments (not that I spend much on such things).

[Charon]

Depends. As my wife and me have very good jobs and no kids we both have no "hobby budget" we just buy on impulse.
So it depends for me on releases and while I did spend around 5000 € during the Eldar/dark Eldar release, I did not buy a lot in recent times (30 Flesh hounds, but from Puppets War) as GW does not really want to take money from chaos players.

[YorkNecromancer]

When I worked full-time, my monthly budget was around £250. Since going part-time, my budget is down to about £60 a month, though I may go over if I see a bargain on eBay, or if something like, say 'Battle for Calth' comes out.

I don't really buy new models any more, and haven't done for about three years. I tend to buy cheap job lots of ruined stuff, then repurpose it, buying additional bits as needed. The only new models I've bought have been the aforementioned 'Calth' boxed set, of which I bought multiple copies, and the Skitarri when they were released last March.

As for actual buying from GW, I haven't bought a miniature from them since I bought some of those 32mm bases (and if I could have sourced the in similar quality for cheaper anywhere else, I would have), and before that, it was a Techmarine I bought back in 2007 when I was first rediscovering the hobby after a long absence. Generally speaking, I can't imagine buying anything from Games Workshop directly; it would feel too much like being financially gouged.

[Mr Mystery]

Currently buying in-store only, as the manager is my former boss, and a thoroughly lovely bloke. So, y'know, support your local gun slinger etc.

If/when he moves on, I'll have less store loyalty and will look to online discounters, or just hall my arse over to Darksphere of an evening.

[Kirsten]

I always support local shops, but as we don't have a local GW store on the island I can shop online.

[Psychosplodge]

I don't really set a budget. I might go for months not spending anything, then drop £300 on a FW binge.

[Fist of Dorn]

At the moment it's about £100- £150 a month, but I think it's going to get much. much worse soon

[Morgrim]

I spend approximately $10-20 australian a month.

So basically I buy something every couple of months. And I haven't branched out from GW because it'd take me a while to get going even on a cheap game like Malifaux, so until I have a group of friends that plays something else I'll stay with GW and convert my models very slowly.

[MindwormGames]

Sometimes I think I only started a game company so I could justify how much I spend on hobby products.

BUSINESS EXPENSE!!!

I'm probably around $100+ per month on average for personal stuff. I like small skirmish games because I have, like, two jobs now. You can get a lot of bang for your buck that way, in terms of both money and time.

[CCS]

Since the late 90s my "hobby budget" has been $500/month (USD). The $ actually goes into a separate account.
It covers whatever games I'm playing at the moment, GW or otherwise.
Anymore it's rare that I spend the entire amount in any given month. So anything left in the account come August then gets applied to my trip to GenCon.